“If a woman strips for money – she’s a slut. If a guy strips – he’s a legend.”

“That is the absolute bottom line”, says Jay*, 30 who has been a male stripper for couple of years now.

“There is a big difference between how male and female lap dancers are perceived. I think a lot of it has to do with the way the audience goes about a dance.

“Male customers would usually text the female dancer afterwards and ask her for something more, whereas women from the audience would rarely pursue a flirt with the male stripper”, Jay explains.

Despite powerful speeches from role models like Emma Watson and Angelina Jolie fighting for gender equality, and often succeeding in changing people’s perception about feminism, in the striptease industry sexism double standards defy how male and female performers are viewed by the public.

Man why are strip clubs so looked down upon..and its only the women strippers too who get bashed like there aren't male strippers

Stripper – turned – businesswoman Amber Rose says it’s “not fair” that there is such stigma for women, but men are being praised for stripping in an interview for Cosmopolitan South Africa.

Jay works for the stripper agency Party Strip in Manchester and says there is quite a difference between the type of shows male and female dancers provide and maybe that’s why there is such a gap in the public’s perception.

Strip show from Magic Mike

He says women in the industry have to work much harder and tolerate a lot more than men do.

“Male strippers are usually hired for fun. My act is a mix of comedy and stripping, so I go there, do my performance, people laugh and I leave.

“I try to keep it all very funny and entertaining, but I think for women dancers it’s a lot more difficult because the business we’re in is entertainment – it’s not exrated, but a lot of the time men expect it to be”, says Jay.

LISTEN to what his act usually includes to make his performance dirty, but also keep it lighthearted and funny:

Wes*, 27, who works for the same agency in Manchester says that despite the difference in the show, male stripping is very much like female stripping – it’s a job: you just want to get it over with and take the money you’ve worked hard for.

“To me it’s purely a job – I don’t think ‘Oh, I can’t wait for this girl to touch me’.

“Unlike women dancers, we do allow touching. We don’t particularly enjoy it though, especially when customers get aggressive and tear you clothes or scratch your back.

“At the end of the day, I’m there to do a job, not to be abused.

“But in this kind of sense, women tend to be more protected by club rules which forbid any sort of touching. So the double standard works the other way around as well”, explains Wes.

Elena, 26, who works in a gentelemen’s club in Manchester, agrees that sometimes men performers have to tolerate much more, because to the general society it’s acceptable for women to touch men, but not vice versa.

“Women have society on our side, whereas for men it’s much more difficult sometimes”, she says.

LISTEN to what Elena says about the difference between male and female stripping:

Jay says that men also have the wrong idea about what it’s like to be a male stripper:

“Guys think we love dancing in front of women because of all the attention we get, and you do enjoy it in the beginning, it feeds your ego.

“And eventually, it’s just like any other job: I want to do what I have to do, get some Chinese food and go home.”

Jay and Wes say that male strippers make good money, but most likely not as much as women.

They both agree that while there are quite a few gentlemen’s clubs in Manchester where female dancers can work regularly, bookings for male performers could be quite infrequent, so they usually need to have a day job as well.

Here is a map of Greater Manchester’s top lap dancing clubs:

**Names in this article have been changed to protect sources’ privacy.

Mother – of – three says quitting the police force to become a stripper is “the best decision” she could have made.

Hannah Havers left her post of 12 years as a police officer in Thames Valley to pursue a career in lap dancing.

Mrs Havers told Strip Magazine: “Going back to lap dancing is the best decision I could have made. I wish I had done it 10 years ago.”

Despite tougher ‘sexual entertainment’ venues (SEVs) legislation and stricter licensing rules, the striptease industry in England seems to be booming more than ever.

With a second strip club within 200ft of the Queen’s favourite residence, Windsor Castle, and women like Mrs Havers leaving their day jobs to become lap dancers, stripping is no longer a job for the broke and desperate, but a career choice with better opportunities and more time for family.

Rochelle has a pool of girls with different requests and an extensive portfolio of clubs around the world.

She said: “I have 10 years of experience as a dancer in Manchester, Germany, Norway, Austria and Australia and my agency works with clubs I have danced at and know are reliable and offer good conditions.

Rochelle’s agency’s logo

“The girls like to feel valued and because I was one of them, I still consider myself one of them, I have a good insight into the business, know how it works, have a lot of contacts and take really good care of my dancers. I understand them and this is why they know they can rely on me.”

Showgirls International not only mediates between dancers and the clubs, but also helps with visas, flights and accommodation when abroad.

Rochelle explains: “Before the recession you could make incredibly good money regularly and have a steady income every year.

“When the recession hit I was still dancing and what I used to make on a regular Monday night turned into a really good Saturday night.

“Since then, the only way to make consistently good money as a stripper is to chase it all year around, for example, spend the summer in the UK, but go to the ski resorts in Austria in the winter.

“You go where the money is. Canada and Australia are renowned for the best money and working conditions, so a lot of girls try to spend as much time there as they can and it really is easier to have an agent back you up and fight your case with whatever problems you might have. ”

Dancer performing

A study, conducted by the top stag do organisers PissUp.com, reveals that Lancashire comes third in place of the counties in England with the most strip clubs per person. With 30 venues and a population of 1,169,300, Lancashire scores 2.565 strip clubs per 100,000 people.

Rochelle’s agency is growing fast and it has opened new doors for her – she now gets paid to do additional web and writing work for different websites as well. She still doesn’t make quite the same money as when she was a stripper, but says she definitely prefers the lifestyle:

“I really don’t miss the late hours, the same conversations with the same kinds of people and the brutal and exhausting hard work.

I went to a strip club in Manchester with my bestie and the strangest thing happened – I made friends with one of the strippers.

So I pay the £10 entry, get warned that any use of mobile phones and recording devices inside is strictly prohibited, and I’m in a strip club for the first time in my life. I open the door and it takes me a moment to take it all in – a dark room with a lot of small tables with cosy booths and a big bar, illuminated by shades of red light, but most intriguingly – a group of about ten women dressed in the most revealing lingerie and 6-inch high heels smiling at me and my bestie like they’d been waiting for us all their lives. It is the most welcoming atmosphere I had been in in a bar.

Me and my friend Zornitsa take straight to the bar, mainly because we’re not exactly sure what else to do or how to act. As soon as we have a drink in our hands, two of the dancers come closer and start chatting us up – it’s kind of like being hit on in a night club, but by women.

That’s when I meet Patricia*. She says: “You wanna know what it’s like to be a stripper? I’ve been in the business for 25 years – I’m your girl!

“But if you want to really understand what it’s all about you have to experience it yourself.”

And then she took my hand and took me downstairs to the private dance rooms. Before we knew it, Zornitsa and I were sat on a couch in an intimate room and there were two beautiful women dancing for us, slowly getting undressed, while our pulses were racing like crazy.

Dancer performs striptease

We kept looking at each other and then at the dancers with the silliest smiles on our faces. We are both heterosexual and never even had a “thing” for a girl, but we were high on adrenaline and it all felt very sensual, empowering and sexy.

“I am like anybody else, you know”, Patricia said to me after the dance.

“As a stripper I earn as much as a doctor, but I get to dance, keep in shape and have some fun.”

Patricia is 44, from Manchester, and has been dancing for more than two decades in England and abroad.

“When I was 19 my father died and I really needed money fast to support myself and my mom. So I started working in a brothel as a prostitute. It was good money, but it was awful and I hated it. I had zero self – respect and started taking drugs to get through it all for about two years.

“And then one day I couldn’t take it anymore – I quit and I got a job as a stripper and it was the best decision in my life! I make almost the same money, but there is no touching and all I have to do is dance.

Patricia has two children – a 13 – year – old son and a daughter, Chloe, 21, and says she is just a ‘regular mom’:

“Every Sunday we have a family day out – this week I’m taking them skydiving. I wouldn’t have been able to do that if it wasn’t for stripping.

“I have my own house, Chloe just finished university, has no student loan to repay and I’m helping her start a business. As long as I am providing for my kids, I don’t care that I have to dance naked for a couple of hours every day.”

Patricia explained that this kind of job is not for everyone. She said you have to be a dancer, an actress and an entertainer all in one. But you have to be very strong at the same time and know why you are there – for the money.

“You have to keep your eye on the ball and remember that you are doing it for your family.”

Patricia says that being a stripper is “like putting a mask on” and that she is completely different outside of her job.

Still, she thinks that her job interferes with her love life.

“I have had two serious relationships, but I was never truly in love, because I could never open up completely to my partners – I used to tell them I was a bartender”, Patricia says.

She has been saving money since she started stripping and has been investing in different businesses. She wants to retire at 50 and simply enjoy the life stripping has bought for her.

“But I am honest to my children – they aren’t particularly happy that their mother is a stripper, but they accept it and are proud of me for giving them the life they have now.

“I have learned to be proud of myself too, but I wouldn’t choose this kind of lifestyle for my daughter”, Patricia reveals.

I leave the bar a little drunk on alcohol and sexy women and a lot turned on. And I have no idea why.

I’ve never been into women and I only got the dance for the purposes of this article, but there was something very sexy and empowering about it, and the fact that this is not something I do every day made the experience all the more exciting and erotic.

It’s probably not for everyone, but if you ever had the slightest interest in what it’s like in a gentlemen’s club, leave your prejudices at home and give it a go – you might find yourself liking it more than you expected.

If you feel shy to go alone, grab one of your more free – minded gilfriends, read this woman’s guide and hit the clubs.

**Names in this article have been changed to protect sources’ privacy.

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Helen Jones MP suggested the UK has an ‘obsession with shopping’ at yesterday’s Parliament debate on whether they should ban retailers opening on Boxing Day.

Labour MP Helen Jones argued that Boxing Day should be a day spent with family, instead of an opportunity for staff exploitation.

Following an online petition which gathered more than 100,000 signatures urging the government to ban Boxing Day shopping, MPs had different opinions during the debate.

Torry MP Andrea Jenkyns said the country ‘should not bite the hand that feeds us’, implying that not opening on Boxing Day would be damaging to retailers.

Credit: Yoana Nikolova

Iona Wills, Marketing manager of independent retailer Oklahoma in Northern Quarter said: “It’s quite important to us as a business that we stay closed on Boxing Day.

“In the run up to Christmas we’re very busy and all of our staff members work very hard and we want to give them the time off they deserve.”

Oklahoma has never opened on Boxing Day in the 19 years since it was established.

Iona said that giving their staff the day off to spend with their families is an important value of Oklahoma because it is ‘very sad’ to work such long hours in the lead up to Christmas and not to get enough time to rest.

She said: “The sales on Boxing Day can be really good, but to us, it’s more important that the staff get that time off, rather than making us profits.

“Every business makes their own decisions, but I definitely think that for us, being a small independent business, it’s important that we stay closed and I hope our customers can appreciate that.”

Currently, there is no law regulating trading hours on Boxing Day, unless December 26 happens to fall on a Sunday.

WATCH: Local residents react to Helen Jones’ comments on stores closing on Boxing day

The government has said it will not tell retailers ‘how to run their shops or how best to serve their customers’.

A small business owner from Manchester said the government cannot decide on behalf of businesses.

He said: “The government have too much say in what we do as it is.
“If businesses want to open on Boxing Day, they have their own reasons to do so.”

The online petition, which gathered 138,235 signatures, calls for Boxing Day to be protected by trading hours law similar to Christmas Day and Easter Day.

It claims: “Christmas is a family time. The one day is not enough time to see two sides of families. Retail workers work extremely hard during the Christmas run up and only get the one day.

“If only everywhere could be closed Boxing Day! Some things are needed over the festive period; retail isn’t one of them.”

Labour MP Ms Jones said employees were being exploited and suggested that many retailers didn’t even see a rise in sales, but opened simply because everyone else did.

She said: “I doubt very much anything would change if they did not start until the 27th.

“So many of us, like me, say Boxing Day is our day of rest. That is not available to many people in retail.”

The government’s answer to the online petition said: “We do not believe it is for central government to tell businesses how to run their shops or how best to serve their customers. Therefore, we are not proposing to ban shops from opening on Boxing Day.”

According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2014, 365,000 people in the UK retail industry worked on Boxing Day.

He repeatedly assaulted her and raped her when she was between 9 and 11.

The court heard he would force himself on her while she was drifting away in her sleep in her own bed.

LISTEN to what Karen Danczuk said in her emotional interview for ITV’s Loose Women:

The other two victims have automatic lifelong anonymity, and they cannot be identified.

The Honourable Mr Justice Gilbart said Mr Burke knowingly exploited his victims’ vulnerability, and caused them significant psychological harm, which continued long after the offence.

He said: “He [the defendant] regards those in close relation to him as objects to use as he pleases.”

The judge said Mr Burke showed no remorse, and lacked insight in alleging that Ms Danczuk conspired with the other two victims against him.

Mr Justice Gilbart said: “He is very good at blaming others, but fails to accept responsibility for his actions.”

There were three aggravating and one mitigating factors the judge took into consideration.

Burke’s main defence was that he was young at the time of the offences, and if he were sentenced back in the 90s, his sentence would have been one for a minor – half to three-quarters less than an adult.

The defence lawyer, Mr Walker, tried to plead other mitigating features with the judge – that Mr Burke used to take part in a political party, and was active in the community, and the fact that there was someone very ill in his family, who he was very concerned about.

While the judge said he would take this into consideration, he summarised that this does not necessarily make him of good character.

Prosecutor Mr Wright QC said the defendant “raped his victims because he felt he could”.

After consideration, the judge came to a decision that there is a high risk of Mr Burke posing as a threat to women close to him again and therefore eligible for an extended sentence.

Mr Burke will serve 3 concurrent sentences adding up to 15 years and a 5–year extension.

Ms Danczuk was not in the courtroom today.

Police recorded crime figures showed an increase of 41% in all sexual offences for the year ending June 2015 compared with the previous year, according to the Office for National Statistics:

Trends in police recorded sexual offences in England and Wales, year ending March 2003 to year ending June 2015:

The collection remains open until Friday December 23 and all donations will be handed over to a homelessness charity in Manchester, which will then distribute the socks to those in need.

Ceewhy Ochoga, President of the Student’s Union, explained that the main idea behind the campaign is to spead warmth and love this festive season.

Ceewhy Ochoga, PresidentCredit: Hollie Rees

She said: “We know that the homeless people probably don’t have a place to stay and are in the cold, so we just thought ‘what can we do to make their lives a little bit warmer this Christmas?’

“An extra layer of socks will always help to keep them warm.”

There are a number of collection points – at the Students’ Union, Atmosphere Kitchen and Bar and in each student accommodation building.

Donated socks for the homeless Credit: Hollie Rees

The turnaround has been good so far, but Ceewhy hopes that more people will open their hearts and give something simple which would be of great help to those in need.

Lisa, who has been on the streets of Manchester for the last six months, said: “A pair of warm socks helps, but not a lot.

“Socks are going to keep your feet warm, but what about a warm property where we could actually stay?”

Lisa explained that she is grateful for small donations like these, but is slightly frustrated that such campaigns only take place around Christmas time.

She said: “What about the other 364 days? Christmas is not the only time we need help and support.”

One in every 266 people in the Greater Manchester area is homeless, according to statistics by the Shelter charity.

The number of rough sleepers in England rises every year. Street counts and estimates carried out by the government give a rough idea of how many people live on the streets across the country.

In 2015 they estimated approximately 3,569 people sleep rough on any given night across England – a rise of 30% on the previous year and double the amount since 2010. The actual figures are likely to be much higher.

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All hope is not lost, as forecasts point to an ice-cold December and the latest odds from bookmakers William Hill suggest you should head to Scotland for a white Christmas with Aberdeen, Edinburgh & Glasgow all 3/1.

“In the countdown to Christmas some forecasts suggest the UK could have its heaviest snowfall in years and we are already seeing a significant punt on the world’s most expensive snowflakes to fall on the 25th”, said William Hill spokesperson Yoana Nikolova.